Vinted App Pros (and lots of) Cons

Vinted. You’ve seen the advertisements about this app. Really hip chicks have really hip clothes that they no longer need. They want to declutter and send their preloved wardrobe off to someone else who can love them some more.

And that’s fine. We all need to declutter and we can all use some extra cash. Having space for more clothes and the money to get the ball rolling on a new wardrobe sound great, doesn’t it?

The whole process seemed easy enough. List your items, take some photos, get some money, send the item in the post. Everything was done through the app and it couldn’t be simpler.

At least, that was how it started off.

I had a box with a handful of brand new, with tags, articles of clothes that I bought and never wore. I had blouses, coats, jackets, trousers, and even a handbag. All perfectly new condition and I asked for a reasonable amount for each one. I took plenty of photos, showing the labels, size, original price, detail in the fabric, etc.

Immediately, I started getting people wanting to buy some things of mine. We live down the street from a small grocery store which takes Hermes packages. That was super convenient because everything I sold just needed to have a premise label printed off, put on the package, and taken to the shop to be sent off.

That was the honeymoon experience I had with Vinted.

Eventually, it turned sour. You can pay to have your items pop up first when people search for clothes. Then customers started quibbling about £1 for items that were worth way more than what they were listed for to begin with. (A brand new £16 shirt from Peacocks fetched a whole £3 rather than £4, for example.)

Then there’s the shipping. People who buy from Vinted can elect if they want the item to come via Hermes or Royal Mail. This means that they’ll pay a little extra to have you take the £3 package down to the Post Office after writing out your own label, keep the receipt for when you sent it, post that on Vinted to prove that you sent it, then get your money which includes the extra you paid for the shipping.

Well, not really. The trick with Vinted is that the person who purchased the item has to approve of the item being worth that hard earned £3 they paid for the item. If they don’t think it’s worth it, you don’t get paid.

Now, luckily, I’ve not run into someone refusing to pay me for something I’ve sent, and I don’t know what the exact rules are to keep people from receiving the money they rightly deserve, but that seems a bit annoying that it’s an option.

I guess for buyers it’s safer than EBay, but for sellers who just have a huge wardrobe and want to downsize, it’s more bother than it’s worth.